


Found

by ButterflyCookies (Lightningpelt)



Category: Free!
Genre: Awkwardness, Cats, Fluff, Kittens, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 17:56:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4675985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightningpelt/pseuds/ButterflyCookies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They might have only met once, but that wasn't about to stop Makoto from knocking on Yamazaki Sousuke's door, bedraggled kitten in hand. </p><p>He was already three cats over the apartment building's limit, after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Found

**Author's Note:**

> Starting to post some of my work from the '15 Sports Anime Summer Olympics. For a complete list of my fills for the event, check ["My Masterlist on Dreamwidth"](http://niaocat.dreamwidth.org/404.html) (I'll only be posting my faves here on AO3).  
> Veiw the original prompt for this one ["here"](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/4403.html?thread=1254451#cmt1254451). 
> 
> As someone who works at a no-kill cat shelter, I couldn't resist.

Sousuke had only met this particular neighbor of his once. The boy was fairly new to the building, and Sousuke wasn’t, after all, the “welcome-to-the-neighborhood-and-here’s-a-plant-to-convince-you-of-my-sincerity” type of neighbor, anyway. 

However, he did recognize the sopping wet boy on his doorstep as his new neighbor. And considering circumstances of their first and only meeting— in which the stranger had been attempting to coax a cat down from a tree —Sousuke wasn't quite surprised by the sopping wet bundle of fur that the boy currently held against his chest. 

"O-Oh, Y-Yamazaki-san!" the brunette greeted him, and Sousuke wondered if he should remember the other boy's name. But it became a moot issue as the other continued, "I-I'm Tachibana Makoto! I live in 226! We've met once before."

"Yeah." Was all Sousuke said, and the brunette stared a bit blankly back.

"W-Well, I... you see..." Makoto fumbled, then held the bundle of fur out just slightly as he began, "I was coming in from my car and I found— ah!" He yelped and cut himself off as thunder crashed somewhere behind him, and he clutched the little cat tighter to him.

Sousuke sighed, unfazed. He couldn't help but observe, though, that the boy wasn't unattractive when he was terrified for his life, especially with the kitten in his arms as a prop.

"Come on," he said simply, moving aside and motioning. Makoto's face turned to a mask of relief.

"Thank you, Yama—"

"Sousuke is fine," the other grunted, closing the door behind his guest. Makoto practically _beamed_.

"Alright! Call me Makoto, then."

"Makoto." Sousuke confirmed with a nod. "Wait here"

He fetched a handful of towels from the hallway cabinet, spreading one out on his couch and tossing two— a large and a small —to his guest.

"Sit down. Dry yourself off."

"Thank you!" Makoto said again, and Sousuke tried not to stare for an abnormal amount of time into those stunning green eyes.

"It's fine." He sat calmly across from his guest, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "Now what were you saying?"

To Sousuke's surprise, Makoto began to blush as he spoke. "Well I... you know what a dangerous neighborhood this is, and it's raining besides, and this little guy is hardly old enough to be on his own..." a motion with the kitten, now bundled in a towel, "and I already have six, and—"

"Wait. Stop there," Sousuke commanded, and Makoto's face got even redder. "Repeat that one."

"Well _I_ can't help it if people are irresponsible with their pets!" he burst out. "Th-they're all rescues, and the one in my bathroom is just with me while his owner is out of town, anyway!"

Sousuke stared in blatant disbelief. "The rules and regs say three, max," he said flatly, and Makoto's blush deepened impossibly.

"L-Like I said...!" he spluttered, fumbling to get kitten number seven dry. "I-I know I can't keep this one, even for a little while, s-so I though maybe you...!"

Sousuke smirked. "The cat. You want me to take the cat."

"I know we've only met once...!" Makoto said, "But you seem like a very decent person, Sousuke! Please, even if it's just for a few days!"

And that was when Sousuke realized that he seemed to have some memory of _helping_ this boy during the aforementioned cat-up-a-tree incident.

The teal-eyed boy sighed, then got up and sat beside his house guest, heedless of the wet towel. Makoto fidgeted as he was looked up and down, then held the kitten out for closer inspection.

Sousuke, much to his eternal embarrassment, felt himself soften as the brazen little bastard mewed up him sweetly.

It _was_ awfully cute.

"Fine. Have you got a spare litter box I can use?"

Makoto's face lit up in the most charming way, and Sousuke found the kitten dumped— carefully dumped, but dumped nonetheless —into his lap, wet towel and all. The shameless creature meowed at him again, and he felt a blush creep across his face as Makoto stood.

"Of course! Of course, I'll go get it n— ah!!" Another crash of thunder interrupted him, and Sousuke couldn't help but chuckle as he stumbled and half-fell back onto the couch.

"Not now," he grumbled, shifting the kitten into a more solid position on his lap. "Sounds like its gotten worse out there."

Makoto nodded a bit shakily. "Right... right. Not now."

And Sousuke found that he was smiling despite himself, one finger stroking the kitten's head absently. "Right. Stay here until the storm is over."

"R-Right..." the brunette said again, then swallowed. "Until... right."

And Sousuke wondered idly if he might be taking advantage of the situation— kitten, storm, and otherwise —to keep the attractive brunette on his couch for a few minutes more.

"O-Oh... I wonder if Gizmo is okay..."

"Gizmo?" Sousuke queried, and Makoto's face lit up.

"Yes! He's always so jumpy... He was a rescue, you see, that I found in... ... ..."

Even if Sousuke wasn't particularly interested in the topic, he sat there attentively for the next several hours, petting the kitten while Makoto told him the life stories of the six felines back at his apartment. Although, truth he told, he was completely caught up in a one-man debate over which was cuter— the cat in his lap or the neighbor on his couch. 

... Perhaps, he thought, if the cat was on the couch and the neighbor was in his lap, that might make for a better arrangement.


End file.
